E-reader tips

Introduction

The true e-book files come come in two basic types. If you have a Kindle reader you’ll need to download the MOBI version of the e-book. For all other e-readers, such as Apple’s iBooks, Google Play Books, the Nobo etc., the EPUB version is the one you need. We also provide an Adobe PDF version which is not a true e-book since it is a non-reflowable, fixed format layout and the font size cannot be changed for your optimal reading preference. You may also read the e-book online without needing to download it but you will need an Interet or Wifi connection to do this..

The sections below describe the download and install procedure for the popular e-readers and apps.

The Apple iPad and iPhone

Loading e-books onto the iPad/iPhone is straightforward as long as you are aware of some of the limitations of the Internet browsers available for the iPad.

There are several e-reader apps available for the iPad/iPhone, but the 3 prominent ones are iBooks, Kindle and Google Play Books.

Choice of Internet browser for the iPad/iPhone

For the purpose of downloading the e-book, for whichever e-reader, we recommend you use the standard iPad browser Safari.

The Google Chrome browser has more functionality, especially if you’re using the Google cloud or Google apps.

The Firefox browser is a good alternative to the Safari browser and downloads e-books without problem.

Apple iBooks reader

Apple offers a very good e-reader app, iBooks, whch is free to download from the App Store if your iPad/iPhone doesn’t come pre-loaded with it.

It has a selection of display modes: black on white, black on sepia, white on grey and white on black. The ‘Auto-Night’ feature automatically switches to white on black in low light conditions. Progress through the book can be acheived by page flips or the book can be smoothly scrolled through with the ‘page number’ discreetly display in the left margin.

It has a dictionary lookup and the ability to mark up text, or add, notes categorised into four colours.

Adding the EPUB to iBooks

To download the EPUB e-book, start the Safari Internet browser app, go to the webpage inaid.com/books and tap on ‘download the EPUB version’. When the file has downloaded, a message is displayed asking which app you wish to open the e-book in; if it says ‘Open in iBooks’ just tap on it, otherwise, tap on ‘More …’ and select iBooks. The iBooks app will start which will add the e-book to your bookshelf and take you into the e-book.

Adding the PDF to iBooks

If you really do prefer to download the PDF version rather than the infinitely more advanced EPUB version, go to the webpage inaid.com/books, tap on ‘download the PDF version’ and the PDF will open in the same Safari window. You can read it from there, however, if you want to add it permanently to your iBooks bookshelf to read at any time offline, click on the ‘sharing’ icon (the square box with the arrow going out the top) and choose ‘Copy to iBooks’. The PDF will will be added to your bookshelf and the e-book will be opened.

Kindle reader for the iPad/iPhone

Amazon has produced the free Kindle reader app for the iPad/iPhone. while it’s not as visually attractive as iBooks or Google Play Books, it does have the advantage of integrating with the Amazon Cloud if you read books on other Kindle devices and want them available across them all. For e-books purchased from Amazon, the Kindle readers keep in sync using the Amazon Cloud in terms of reading progress and any notes you may attach to the text.

The app offers three display modes: black on white, black on sepia and white on black. The inter-line spacing and page margins are selectable and the preferred font may be selected from a small list.

The dictionary facilty uses Kindle’s own dictionary, a link to Wikipedia and a link to the Bing translate facility.

Text may be highlighted in a choice of four colours and notes may be added to the text.

Adding the MOBI to Kindle on the iPad/iPhone

To download the MOBI e-book, start the Safari Internet browser app, go to the webpage inaid.com/books and tap on ‘download the MOBI version’. When the file has downloaded, a message is displayed asking which app you wish to open the e-book in; if it says ‘Copy to Kindle’ just tap on it, otherwise, tap on ‘More …’ and select ‘Copy to Kindle’. The Kindle app will start which will load the e-book into the Amazon library and take you to the starting page.

Adding the PDF to Kindle on the iPad/iPhone

If you prefer to download the PDF version, go to the webpage inaid.com/books and tap on ‘download the PDF version’ and the PDF will open in the same Safari window. You can read it from there, however, if you want to add it permanently to your Kindle library to read at any time offline, click on the ‘sharing’ icon (the square box with the arrow going out the top) and choose ‘Copy to Kindle’. The PDF will will be added to your Kindle library and the PDF will be opened.

Google Play Books for the iPad/iPhone

The Play Books app for the iPad/iPhone is a VERY good e-reader with, overall, more functionality than either iBooks or the Kindle app. The Play Books app for Android devices is simiarly excellent, although the app for Windows is less impressive.

Play Books a cloud-centric system in that, whichever device you initially load an e-book onto, the Play Books e-reader app on that device first uploads the e-book to the Google Cloud where it is processed and checked for compatibility. That e-book will then appear on ALL your devices, where, the first time you go into it on a particular device, the ‘processed’ version will be downloaded to that device so that, in future, it can be read offline. This procedure does incur some initial overhead when adding a book, however, everything remains synced across all devices, whether you bought the e-book from the Google Play Store or whether you uploaded the e-books from other sources such as our own site. The level of the syncing is very good, encompassing not just the last read position but also bookmarked pages or any notes you may have added to the text.

There is the ubiquitous dictionary facility, but in addition to this, Google leverages its Google Translate technology to provide a press and click translation of any word as you’re reading. Notes added to the book can be categorised by 4 distinct colours in the text.

Text can be displayed black on a white or a sepia background or white on a black background. For all of these combinations, the ‘Night Light’ facility can be used to reduce glare and to filter out the blue light whch has been identified as affecting our sleep health.

One outstanding feature of the Android version of Play Books, missing from the iPad/iPhone version, is the ‘Read aloud’ facility whch progresses through the book highlighting each paragraph as it is read aloud.

Adding the EPUB to Play Books on the iPad/iPhone

To load the e-books onto Google Play Books, start the Safari Internet browser app, go to the webpage inaid.com/books and tap on ‘download the EPUB version’. When the file has downloaded, a message is displayed asking which app you wish to open the e-book in; if it says ‘Copy to Play Books’ just tap on it, otherwise, tap on ‘More …’  which will allow you to choose ‘Copy to Play Books’. An ‘Upload file’ message will be displayed asking whether you want to upload the e-book to the Google Cloud to make it available on all your devices using the Play Books software. Confirming this by tapping on ‘Upload’ will take a while to upload the file and process it before adding it to your Play Books My Library where it will be displayed. Tapping on the image of the book will then download the ‘processed’ version of the e-book so that you can read it offline at any time in the future.

Adding the PDF to Play Books on the iPad/iPhone

If you really do prefer to download the PDF version rather than the infinitely more advanced EPUB version, go to the webpage inaid.com/books, tap on ‘download the PDF version’ and the PDF will open in the same Safari window. You can read it from there, however, if you want to add it permanently to your Play Books My Library, click on the ‘sharing’ symbol on the top line of the browser and choose ‘Copy to Play Books’. The PDF will take a while to upload and process in the Google Cloud before adding it to your Play Books My Library where it will be displayed. Tapping on the image of the book will then download the ‘processed’ version of the PDF so that you can read it offline at any time in the future.

Android tablets and phones

Android tablets and phones come in many forms from several manufacturers, some of whom ‘tailor’ their version of Android to differentiate them from the ‘pack’. However, the apps from the Google Play Store are generally the same across all Android devices.

There are several e-reader apps available in the Google Play Store, most of them free. We recommend Google Play Books for its wealth of features and for its syncing capabilities across all your devices.

If you use Kindle devices and have already bought books from Amazon, which are held in the Amazon ‘cloud’, the Kindle reader app for Android can be downloaded from the Google Play Store to access those books and share reading progress, boomarks and notes across all your Kindle devices. One shortcoming is that, books whch are not bought directly from the Amazon store are not shared across all your devices and have to be loaded indivdiually on each. Similarly, any notes or bookmarks are local only and are not synced across all your devices.

Choice of Internet browser for Android

There’s a number of browsers available for Android athough, given that Google produce the Android operating system, it’s difficult to imagine why one would use a browser other than the excellent Google Chrome which, if it doesn’t come pre-installed on the phone, can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. Firefox is another good browser on Android. Some handware manufacturers such as Smasung bundle their own browser with their products.

Google Play Books for Android

The Play Books app for Android is a VERY good e-reader with, overall, more functionality than any other e-reader app.  In addition to Android, Play Books is available for the iPad/iPhone and desktop and laptop Windows systems.

Play Books a cloud-centric system in that, whichever device you initially load an e-book onto, the Play Books e-reader app on that device first uploads the e-book to the Google Cloud where it is processed and checked for compatibility. That e-book will then appear on ALL your devices, where, the first time you go into it on a particular device, the ‘processed’ version will be downloaded to that device so that, in future, it can be read offline. This procedure does incur some initial overhead when adding a book, however, everything remains synced across all devices, whether you bought the e-book from the Google Play Store or whether you uploaded the e-books from other sources such as our own site. The level of the syncing is very good, encompassing not just the last read position but also bookmarked pages or any notes you may have added to the text.

There is the ubiquitous dictionary facility, but in addition to this, Google leverages its Google Translate technology to provide a press and click translation of any word as you’re reading. Notes added to the book can be categorised by 4 distinct colours in the text.

Text can be displayed black on a white or a sepia background or white on a black background. For all of these combinations, the ‘Night Light’ facility can be used to reduce glare and to filter out the blue light whch has been identified as affecting our sleep health.

One outstanding feature of the Android version of Play Books, missing from the iPad/iPhone version, is the ‘Read aloud’ facility whch progresses through the book highlighting each paragraph as it is read aloud.

Adding the EPUB to Play Books on Android

To load the e-books onto Google Play Books, start the Chrome Internet browser app, go to the webpage inaid.com/books and tap on ‘download the EPUB version’. When the file has downloaded, a message is displayed asking whether you wish to open the file; tapping on this brings up a dialog box asking whether you want to ‘Open with Upload to Play Books’. The initial message can disappear after a short time but by dragging down the status bar and selecting the download notification you arrive at the ‘Open with Upload to Play Books’ dialog box. Tapping on the ‘Just Once’ response will start the upload to the Google Cloud. This upload and the subsequent processing can take a few minutes, after which it will be available on all your devices which use the Play Books software and the e-book will appear in your Play Books My Library. Tapping on the image of the book will then download the ‘processed’ version of the e-book so that you can read it offline at any time in the future.

Adding the PDF to Play Books on Android

If you really do prefer to download the PDF version rather than the infinitely more advanced EPUB version, go to the webpage inaid.com/books, tap on ‘download the PDF version’ and the PDF will open in the same Chrome PDF viewer window. You can read it from there, however, if you want to add it permanently to your Play Books My Library, click on the menu icon (usually the 3-dotted vertical bar) and choose ‘Open with …’ nd select ‘Upload to PLay Books’. The PDF will take a while to upload and process in the Google Cloud before adding it to your Play Books My Library where it will be displayed. Tapping on the image of the book will then download the ‘processed’ version of the PDF so that you can read it offline at any time in the future.

Kindle reader for Android

If you use Kindle devices and have already bought books from Amazon, which are held in the Amazon ‘cloud’, the Kindle reader app for Android can be downloaded from the Google Play Store to access those books and share reading progress, boomarks and notes across all your Kindle devices. One shortcoming is that, books whch are not bought directly from the Amazon store are not shared across all your devices and have to be loaded indivdiually on each. Similarly, any notes or bookmarks are local only and are not synced across all your devices.

The app offers three display modes: black on white, black on sepia and white on black. The inter-line spacing and page margins are selectable and the preferred font may be selected from a small list.

The dictionary facilty uses Kindle’s own dictionary, a link to Wikipedia and a link to the Bing translate facility.

Text may be highlighted in a choice of four colours and notes may be added to the text.

Adding the Mobi to Kindle on Android

To load the MOBI e-book into your Kindle library on Android, start the Chrome Internet browser app, go to the webpage inaid.com/books and tap on ‘download the MOBI version’. When the file has downloaded, a message is displayed asking whether you wish to open the file; tapping on this brings up a dialog box asking whether you want to ‘Open with Kindle’. The initial message can disappear after a short time but by dragging down the status bar and selecting the download notification you arrive at the ‘Open with Kindle’ dialog box. Tapping on the ‘Just Once’ response will copy the e-book into your Kindle libraryand open the e-book.

On some versions of Android, the ‘Copy to Kindle’ option does not appear and it’s necessary to locate the downloaded file and move it into the Kindle folder on the Android device, from where the Kindle app will detect it. To acheive this, you need select to display your installed Android apps and choose the one called ‘Downloads’ which displays all the files you’ve downloaded. ‘Long’ pressing on the file you’ve just downloaded will enable you to select the menu item ‘Copy to …’ from where you can navigate to the folder called ‘kindle’ and select to ‘Copy’ the file to that folder. Opening the Kindle app next time will display your downloaded e-book.

The Kindle e-reader devices

*** Coming soon ***

The Kobo reader devices

*** Coming soon ***